Untrained consumer assessment of the eating quality of European beef: 2. Demographic factors have only minor effects on consumer scores and willingness to pay

Abstract

The beef industry must become more responsive to the changing market place and consumer demands. An essential part of this is quantifying a consumer's perception of the eating quality of beef and their willingness to pay for that quality, across a broad range of demographics. Over 19 000 consumers from Northern Ireland, Poland, Ireland and France each tasted seven beef samples and scored them for tenderness, juiciness, flavour liking and overall liking. These scores were weighted and combined to create a fifth score, termed the Meat Quality 4 score (MQ4) (0.3 × tenderness, 0.1 × juiciness, 0.3 × flavour liking and 0.3 × overall liking). They also allocated the beef samples into one of four quality grades that best described the sample; unsatisfactory, good-every-day, better-than-every-day or premium. After the completion of the tasting panel, consumers were then asked to detail, in their own currency, their willingness to pay for these four categories which was subsequently converted to a proportion relative to the goodevery-day category (P-WTP). Consumers also answered a short demographic questionnaire. The four sensory scores, the MQ4 score and the P-WTP were analysed separately, as dependant variables in linear mixed effects models. The answers from the demographic questionnaire were included in the model as fixed effects. Overall, there were only small differences in consumer scores and P-WTP between demographic groups. Consumers who preferred their beef cooked medium or well-done scored beef higher, except in Poland, where the opposite trend was found. This may be because Polish consumers were more likely to prefer their beef cooked well-done, but samples were cooked medium for this group. There was a small positive relationship with the importance of beef in the diet, increasing sensory scores by about 4% in Poland and Northern Ireland. Men also scored beef about 2% higher than women for most sensory scores in most countries. In most countries, consumers were willing to pay between 150 and 200% more for premium beef, and there was a 50% penalty in value for unsatisfactory beef. After quality grade, by far the greatest influence on P-WTP was country of origin. Consumer age also had a small negative relationship with P-WTP. The results indicate that a single quality score could reliably describe the eating quality experienced by all consumers. In addition, if reliable quality information is delivered to consumers they will pay more for better quality beef, which would add value to the beef industry and encourage improvements in quality.Keywords: consumer testing, beef, quality, demographics, Europe Implications A single quality descriptor of beef eating quality will likely be applicable to the entire European market due to the small impact of demographics on consumer scores. This descriptor could form the basis of an eating quality-based grading system for beef which would allow consumers to select beef of a desired quality when purchasing beef. As European consumers are also willing to pay more for better q...

Influence of Demographic Factors on Sheepmeat Sensory Scores of American, Australian and Chinese Consumers

“…Previous research has shown that consumer demographic factors and meat consumption habits have some impact on eating quality scores in sheep [9] and beef [10], however the magnitude of these effects are often low, inconsistent across eating quality traits, and differ across countries. Australian, French, Northern Irish and Polish consumers with a higher appreciation of red meat in their diet tend to score lamb and beef more favourably than those who classify themselves as indifferent to red meat [9,10]. This was not observed for Irish or Korean consumers rating grilled beef samples [10,11].…”

“…Australian, French, Northern Irish and Polish consumers with a higher appreciation of red meat in their diet tend to score lamb and beef more favourably than those who classify themselves as indifferent to red meat [9,10]. This was not observed for Irish or Korean consumers rating grilled beef samples [10,11]. A preferred higher degree of cooking doneness has also been shown to positively influence sensory scores compared to those who prefer medium doneness for Australian, Northern Irish and Irish consumers, however no effect was observed in French or Korean consumers, with Polish consumers demonstrating the opposite effect [9][10][11].…”

Beef Quality Preferences: Factors Driving Consumer Satisfaction

“…One distinct difference was that younger participants were more responsive to changes in juiciness by almost 6%. Bonny et al [32] observed a small negative relationship between age and tenderness in France and Poland, and with age and juiciness in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Poland. However, tenderness scores increased with age in Northern Ireland.…”

“…The results from the pairwise comparison illustrated that higher income consumers were more responsive to a change in tenderness, by nearly 11%, while the lower income group was more responsive to juiciness and flavor (Table 11). Bonny et al [32] reported income level with respect to country had very little effect on consumer scores for beef eating quality. Only juiciness was influenced by income level [35].…”

“…The most distinct difference was that males were 7% more responsive to a change in tenderness. Bonny et al [32] reported demographic differences of European consumer scores for beef eating quality. Notably, men scored beef samples more favorably than women in general, but this trend varied between countries (Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Poland) and between palatability traits.…”